A British couple who dreamed of retiring in Spain have found themselves homeless after a series of unfortunate events. Paula and Rob Briers moved from Leicestershire to Benidorm in 2020 after the first Covid lockdown ruined their plans to move to Granada.
They decided to retire to the sunshine after spending years working at an Amazon warehouse. The couple, aged 52 and 60 respectively, chose to move to the coastal party town popular with British tourists and bought a caravan after finding a plot on the Villamar campsite.
But after settling into the site, grandmother Paula was heartbroken to find it crawling with stray cats that “needed help”, reports the Mirror. Mum-of-six Paula agreed to find homes for as many of the moggies as possible, saying “I’ve always loved animals”. “In the UK I did fostering and things.”
“In Villamar we just said ‘look, we’ll help you out, sort out the cats’ and we had a little table on our plot where people used to come and give donations and things,” she told the Express. Paula, who is originally from Bournemouth, claimed that she and her husband, who is from Leicester, managed to get the cat population down from about 1,000 to 200 but were then evicted from the campsite, saying they “bounced around” for a while before ending up sleeping rough.
Their luck changed when the pair met British musician and charity boss Johnny Elraiz, better known by his stage name Jonny Hellraizer, who helped them get back on their feet. “We were in a field,” she said. “After we got kicked off the Villamar we literally slept in a field… behind a bush. Obviously we didn’t know Jonny then. In fact we knew him as an entertainer. We didn’t really know what he did. And he just came and found us and then from there he started bringing us food and that.”
Since then, the couple have found a new spot, living in the outhouse of a derelict property during the summer months. When winter comes around they stay in a caravan in the derelict property’s garden. They said that they pay the landlady €150 (£126) to stay on the property, and in exchange they tend to the garden. Paula said that prior to their arrival the majority of the space was so overgrown with cacti it was inaccessible. “We’re hoping to stay here because the landlady’s lovely”, she said. “And obviously she’s pleased that she’s got a garden now, not just a jungle.”
Although they didn’t achieve the Spanish retirement of their dreams, Paula and Rob were sanguine about their situation. “There’s always somebody worse off than us. You know, I stay positive. There’s a lot of people out there who are a damn sight worse off than us.” They added that without the help of Mr Elraiz, who plays guitar and sings for Benidorm metal band White Coast Rebels, their predicament would be far worse.
Paula said: “He is very important. You know if it wasn’t for him… people would die because there’s just not anything to help people. Jonny does a lot for a lot of people. Not just us, he helps people get showers and everything so it’s invaluable to the community – it really is. And people who are on the streets, they need food. They can’t just go into a restaurant and say ‘I’m starving’.”
Paula and Rob are the not the only Brits that have got a helping hand from Mr Elraiz. En route to picking up food parcels for destitute members of the community, the long-haired performer told the Express that his charity, City Streets Community Project, provides food for between 60 and 70 residents, including “semi-squatters” Paula and Rob.
“Daily, we’ve been feeding around 60 to 70 people”, he said. Of those “around 15” are British. However, over the last four years, he’s assisted “well over 100” Brits in Benidorm.
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